Missing Louisiana Teacher Garners Very Little Media Coverage

Over the last two weeks, the search for 26-year-old teacher, Terrilynn Monette has gripped much of Louisiana.

Over the last two weeks, the search for 26-year-old teacher, Terrilynn Monette has gripped much of Louisiana. Here are the details courtesy of CNN.com

New Orleans police said she was last seen on March 2 at Parlay's, a bar in the Lakeview area of the city.

One of the bartenders working that night had to "cut off" Monette, indicating the bartender felt she had had too much to drink and should no longer be served, bar manager Anna Boudousque said.

Monette told her friends she was going to sleep in her car before driving home because she had been drinking, police said.

She was seen about 4 a.m. talking to an unidentified man in the parking lot, police said.

As much as you'd like to hope that Monette's story has a positive ending in sight, there doesn't appear to be much hope in finding her alive after 16 days. Unless you reside in New Orleans, you probably have had a difficult time finding coverage of the search. That's because, on the other end of the Missing White Woman Syndrome spectrum is the overall general apathy displayed by the national media when a minority goes missing under similar circumstances.

While CNN.com's story on Friday detailed the exhausting seach to find her, Monette's story has gone unnoticed by the majority of the mainstream media. This is in stark contrast to the countless media storms that follow missing Caucasian women, who go missing every year. It's a tragedy when anyone's son, daughter, husband or wife goes missing. So let's treat these stories with the same level of concern.